For most of this spring, extreme gun-rights supporters in Texas have come under fire for carrying semi-automatic rifles in public places, such as coffee shops and restaurants. Texas’ longstanding open-carry laws, for those who don’t know, allow rifles to be carried public. However, that practice has justifiably alarmed patrons and employees, prompting several national chains to ban the possession of firearms on their premises.
That hasn’t stopped open-carry supporters from resorting to ugly, nakedly aggressive, and in some cases outright illegal tactics against those who disagree with them. For instance, one group went as far as to release the phone numbers of anyone who called 911 about their demonstrations on YouTube (a tactic that, mercifully, seems to have ended for now). And just last week, several open-carry advocates tried to bully a former Marine who was recording a demonstration in Fort Worth.
On Friday, the National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action–to issue a statement calling for open-carry advocates to stop these extremist practices.
In what can charitably be described as an understatement, the ILA calls public carry of long guns a “dubious practice.”. It also points out–rightly–that seeing someone amble up to you in line with a rifle slung across his chest is “downright scary” to those unfamiliar with the tactic. Such tactics, the ILA says, accomplish nothing except pushing undecided voters into the gun-control camp, and can also give pause to “folks who might normally be perfectly open-minded about firearms.” From the statement:
Let’s not mince words, not only is it rare, it’s downright weird and certainly not a practical way to go normally about your business while being prepared to defend yourself. To those who are not acquainted with the dubious practice of using public displays of firearms as a means to draw attention to oneself or one’s cause, it can be downright scary. It makes folks who might normally be perfectly open-minded about firearms feel uncomfortable and question the motives of pro-gun advocates.
Mother Jones reports that tension has been brewing between the NRA and the open-carry camp for some time. On April 28, Open Carry Texas president and founder CJ Grisham had a heated meeting with Alice Tripp, legislative director for the NRA’s Texas branch, the Texas State Rifle Association, and longtime NRA board member Charles Cotton. Tripp and Cotton told Grisham in no uncertain terms that his group’s antics didn’t sit too well with state lawmakers.
Tripp said she’d been bombarded with questions about what she was doing to rein in the open-carry demonstrations. Grisham harrumphed that his group was merely standing up for its rights, and that the NRA and TSRA were “siding with Moms Demand Action” by coming down on them. Cotton, a Houston resident, said that Grisham was using “fighting words” and didn’t understand that all he was doing was alienating people who support the NRA’s drive to loosen gun laws further. In response, Open Carry Texas’s Twitter feed has fired off a series of tweets increasingly critical of the NRA.
This is the same NRA that has singlehandedly stood in the way of any attempt to enact common-sense reform of our gun laws. Despite overwhelming support of such reforms in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, one call from NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre was enough to keep these proposals from clearing the 60-vote hurdle in the Senate.
This is also the same NRA that continues to allow LaPierre to be its public face two decades after calling federal agents “jackbooted thugs.” In other words, when an organization this hidebound and extremist thinks gun-rights advocates have gone too far, that’s saying something.
Edited/Published by: SB
Darrell Lucus is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
